Pope Leo gives first indication of how he interprets ‘Synodality’
Charles Collins/Crux• June 11, 2025
He has only been in office for a month, but every word and action of Pope Leo XIV has been analysed extensively by the media trying to determine the mentality of the new pontiff. Though as Leo himself pointed out on 24 May: “Popes pass away, but the Curia remains.”
Most of what Leo has done, since being elected pontiff on 8 May, just a few weeks after Pope Francis died on 21 April, was already prepared for his predecessor, including the men Leo has appointed bishops, and the meetings with officials he has held. Even many of his homilies and speeches were probably drawn from things originally written by or for Francis.
Which is why it is interesting that on Wednesday, 11 June, the Office of Liturgical Celebrations issued a statement on preparations for the Solemnity of the Saints Apostles Peter and Paul taking place in Saint Peter’s Basilica on 29 June. The document said “the Holy Father Leo XIV will preside over the Eucharistic Celebration, bless the Pallia and impose them on the new Metropolitan Archbishops”.
The “Pallia” – the plural form – refers to the pallium, which is the ecclesiastical vestment made from lambswool and worn around the neck, that is given to metropolitan archbishops, and which represents their connection to the Roman pontiff. It has six black silk crosses depicted on it, and dates back to the fifth century.
Pope St. John Paul II mandated they be instituted by the pontiff himself. However, in 2015, Pope Francis instead just gave the pallium to the archbishops during the June 29 Mass, and they were installed later in the home archdiocese of the recipient in a ceremony conducted by the papal nuncio of the country.
“The meaning of this change is to put more emphasis on the relationship of the metropolitan archbishops – the newly nominated – with their local Church,” said then-Monsignor Guido Marini, serving as Papal Master of Ceremonies, in a 2015 interview with Vatican Radio. (Marini is now Bishop of Tortona in Italy.)
Marini said the change was part of “that journey of synodality in the Catholic Church which, from the beginning of his pontificate, [Pope Francis] has constantly emphasised as particularly urgent and precious at this time in the history of the Church”.
He also said that moving the institution of the pallium to the home archdiocese “will greatly favour the participation of the local Church in an important moment of its life and history”.
The emeritus archbishop of San Francisco, John R. Quinn, in 2015 told America Magazine that changing the pallium policy was a means by Pope Francis “to underline synodality in the Church”, adding that the change “becomes a reminder to the Archbishop, to his own diocese and to the bishops and dioceses of his Metropolitan Province that they are being called to open new paths to a true synodality of participation and communion in their churches”.
On 19 May, shortly after his installation as the new pontiff, Pope Leo told Christian leaders “synodality and ecumenism are closely linked”.
He added: “I wish to assure you of my intention to continue Pope Francis’s commitment to promoting the synodal character of the Catholic Church and to developing new and concrete forms for an ever more intense synodality in the ecumenical field.”
For over a decade, the Vatican has struggled defining what it means when it uses the word “synodality”: Is it more like the lawmaking structure found in the Eastern Churches, much of which was overtaken in the West by the authority of the popes; or is it related to the talking-shop format used in the Synod of Bishops founded after Vatican II?
Before becoming Pope Leo, US-born Cardinal Robert Prevost was serving as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops – so even a small change to the treatment of new archbishops will send a signal from the new Pope.
Another factor is how this is happening in June. The Vatican generally slows down for the summer, and real decisions and changes don’t start to happen until September. Again, it suggests a proactive move by the new pontiff to send a message.
The change by Pope Francis of the imposition of the pallium going from Rome to the home archdioceses of archbishops was one of the first official acts concerning one of Francis’s key programs.
Pope Leo has already mentioned “synodality” several times in his short time in his new role. On 29 June, with the blessing and imposition of the Pallium, the Church will learn more about how the new pontiff defines the term.
RELATED: Pope Leo sets the tone while maintaining Francis’s mission to reform Curia
Photo: Pope Leo XIV, wearing a pallium, waves after the Mass for the formal inauguration of his pontificate in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican, 18 May 2025. (Photo by ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images.)